MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday sent a written message to his Ukrainian counterpart Petro Poroshenko offering a plan of pulling out heavy weaponry by the conflicting parties. Kiev turned this plan down having offered nothing instead, Russian president’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.

“In the recent days, Russia has been taking effort as a mediatory in the settlement of the conflict. Thus, overnight from Thursday to Friday, Vladimir Putin sent a writted message to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, where he offered both parties to the conflict a concrete plan of heavy artillery pullout. The Ukrainian president received the message on Friday morning,” Peskov said. “Regrettably, the Ukrainian side has turned down the plan and has proposed nothing instead. More to it, it has resumed combat operations.”

“As a result, we are witnessing ongoing shelling of Donetsk and an absolute degradation of the situation in eastern Ukraine,” he noted.

Commenting on reports coming from south-eastern Ukraine, Peskov said, “Moscow is extremely worried over the development of the situation. They are again shelling residential quarters in Donetsk, people are dying again.”.